OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14371827
EXCAVATION,HEAD,WORK RULES,BACKHOE BUCKET,CONSTRUCTION,CRUSHED,STRUCK BY
Event description
Employee killed when head crushed by backhoe bucket
Investigation abstract
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on September 10, 1985, Employee #1 was at the bottom of a 16 ft long by 12 ft wide by 10 ft deep excavation. He was preparing to clos e a hole in a building foundation on the side of the excavation with plywood. Th e walls of the excavation were almost vertical and not shored. The backhoe opera tor, who was located at the top of the excavation, was holding the plywood in pl ace with the bucket of the backhoe. As Employee #1 moved to get a 4 by 4 brace t o secure the plywood, the backhoe operator moved the bucket, striking Employee # 1 and crushing his head against a side wall of the excavation. He died of severe head injuries.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 45 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 8
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#981 Degree 0 Age 0
- Nature of injury
- 0
- Part of body
- 0
- Event type
- 0
- Source
- 0
- Occupation code
- 0
- Human factor
- 0
- Environmental factor
- 0
- Task assigned
- 0
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.